“Of course I can touch you. I am the Goblin King. Death bows before me. Don’t you remember that, assassin?” Yynnok asked with a shrug.
“I remember. Why have you come?” Mattoc replied.
“Warthor Ein is here. I could smell his stench all the way in the Underbog. I have come to eat the flesh from his bones.” Yynnok’s purple tongue snaked out of his mouth and ran across his lips.
“You haven’t a chance, goblin,” Warthor growled. “Besides, I’m a little busy right now.”
“Your words mean very little to me,” Yynnok said with a smirk as he pulled a small, knobby axe from the sling on his back and hefted it in one hand. He screeched, a loud “Aii!” and leapt over my head. I turned, forgetting about the glare and spots danced across my eyes.
I put my arm over my face as the goblin landed squarely on Warthor’s back and he staggered forward, losing his grip on the Winter Queen. The goblin wrapped his arms around Warthor’s throat as Warthor reached back and seized the creature by the leg. Warthor’s flesh had been burned black under the heat of Kishi’s attack, and his skin cracked and flaked away as he flung the goblin into the wall.
Yynnok hit the stone with a bone-crunching thud, and he slid to the ground rubbing his head. He screeched again and sprinted forward, flailing his arms like windmills and catching Warthor in the stomach, tackling him to the ground.
The blackened corpse of the Winter Queen collapsed, disintegrating into a pile of ash as Kishi turned toward the goblin. Warthor held the Goblin King at arm’s length and Yynnok’s jaws snapped, clamping around Warthor’s right bicep and tearing away a hunk of flesh in a spray of blood and meat.
Warthor gritted his teeth as his arm gave out, and the Goblin King collapsed on top of him. Deep red blood dripped down Yynnok’s chin as his arms whipped out, wrapping around Warthor’s torso. The goblin buried his face in Warthor’s stomach, biting down and tearing away another chunk of meat moments before Kishi grabbed Yynnok by the back of the head and flung him off.
“Lillim, pay attention!” Mattoc said.
I whirled around to see more goblins rushing toward us from the hole in the wall. They were clad in crimson headpieces covered in spikes and feathers. Thick, red fluid dripped down their faces as they charged in a snarling mass, and without thinking, I reached for Shirajirashii. My hands found nothing, and I realized the blades were still across the hallway.
I turned and sprinted toward them, goblins hot on my heels. I dove for the weapons, snatching them off the ground and rolling to my feet. The white blades throbbed with energy as I lashed out, striking the first goblin in the neck. The sword passed through him so cleanly, his body kept coming toward me as his head toppled sideways to the floor.
Blood fountained upward out of his neck as I stepped forward and drove my wakazashi, Set, into the chest of the right goblin. I released the blade and whirled around, my katana, Isis, cutting the left goblin in half as I reached out and grabbed the blade of Set and ripped it sideways out of the impaled creature.
Blood, hot and slick, covered me, dripping down my face and into the creases of my armor. I squinted, trying to blink the blood out of my eyes as I charged the rest of the goblins, but for some reason, they stopped moving even though Warthor and Kishi were still locked in combat with the Goblin King.
“Red Cap,” one goblin cooed in a soft, gravelly voice.
“Red Cap,” others in the crowd began chanting. They dropped to their knees, kneeling before me as I reached them.
“What’s going on?” I asked, skidding to a stop and wiping the blood from my eyes with the back of my hand.
“You just killed the Red Caps,” Mattoc said. “I guess that’s a big deal to them.”
“What’s a Red Cap?” I asked, glancing back at the three dead goblins.
“They’re like normal goblins except they dip their hats in the blood of their victims,” Mattoc said with a shrug. “It’s a goblin thing.”
“So why do they keep chanting Red Cap?” I asked.
“Because you have spilled the red blood!” Yynnok yelled, darting between Warthor’s legs and running toward me like a bat out of hell.
Mattoc’s fist lashed out, slamming into the goblin’s face as he darted by and throwing him sideways into the wall. It cracked beneath the force of the blow and Yynnok slid to the floor rubbing his head.
My mouth fell open as I stared at Mattoc. My ghost was wringing out his hand as he took two steps toward the Goblin King and grinned. “Haven’t felt something in years. Almost forgot what it was like,” Mattoc said.
“You hit him?” I barely managed to keep the surprise out of my voice because Mattoc was supposed to be incorporeal. He shouldn’t have been able to hit anything.
Mattoc glanced at me and raised one eyebrow as if to say, “well yeah, didn’t you see the way I clobbered that guy?”
The Goblin King shook his head as if clearing away the cobwebs and flung himself to his feet. “Four on one is good odds, yes.” He smirked and threw out his right hand. “But two versus four is better,” he added. The pile of ash that had once been the Winter Queen exploded in a swirling twister of dust and cinders.
“No!” Warthor screamed, and as he pointed his sword at the smoky tornado, ice exploded outward, covering him in a thick layer of frost. His arm stiffened, unmoving as the Queen of the Cold and Dark stepped forth from the swirling black fog. Fine white mist spread out before her in a wave that washed over everything. The air crystalized as she waved her left hand casually at Warthor Ein, and his flesh shattered.
His skeleton stood there, frozen in place as fragments of flesh rained down around him, clunking against the stone floor like bits of falling metal.
“Did you think you could really defeat the Winter Queen?” she growled, turning her head from the skeletal form of Warthor Ein and glaring at Kishi. “Even with all the Dioscuri’s men, I don’t think they’ll be able to put Warthor Ein back together again.”
Kishi reached backward and pulled a long trident from the flesh along her exposed arm. It came free of her skin with a loud popping sound, and as she gripped it in her burning hand, it became suffused with the light of a thousand suns. The Winter Queen hissed and shielded her face from the glare of the weapon.
“You want to dance, Queenie?” Kishi growled and charged the Winter Queen. “Let’s dance.”
14
A guttural howl exploded from my left, and I turned my head to see Mattoc and the Goblin King locked in hand to hand combat. They were moving so fast that I could barely follow their movements. Yet, even now, I could see the problem. The Goblin King was faster, and he wasn’t even trying that hard. All of his blows were measured, testing, as he seemingly pounded away at Mattoc with wild abandon.
A furious haymaker smashed through the wall near where Mattoc’s head was just a moment before. It skimmed so close to him that it ruffled his hair. Everything clicked all at once. Yynnok was only pretending to be an undisciplined fighter. He was making us think he had no plan, no skill. That wasn’t the case at all. He was just fooling us.
Yynnok’s foot lashed out, catching Mattoc along the shin to block an attack. Mattoc stumbled and the Goblin King’s elbow jerked out and caught him on the chin. Pain flashed across Mattoc’s face as he wobbled sideways, eyes half-glazed.
“He’s faking it!” I screamed and darted forward slashing my twin swords through the air, one aimed at the goblin’s neck, the other at his knees. Without even looking, Yynnok leapt into the air, twisting himself sideways between the blades and landed back on the floor, grubby hands outstretched in a sort of drunken fighting stance.
There was shriek a behind me, and I turned my head just in time to see the Queen of the Cold and Dark slam upward into the ceiling with a wet sounding thud. Warthor’s skeletal body slowly lowered its foot back to the ground, blood and ichor dripping down the blade of his sword as he did so.
Flesh pooled around his feet, running together like muddy water and swarming upward along his
boney legs. His eye sockets burned with white fire as he clucked his teeth together, a thin wisp of a tongue whipping out as he did so.
Watching his body reform was like watching darkness fall. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment of the thing, but one moment he was all bone and sinew and the next he was walking toward the Fairy Queen looking as though he’d never been hurt. She struggled to her feet, blood dripping down her torso as he leaned down close to her and drove his sword through the back of her neck, pinning her to the ground once more.
“Lillim!” Mattoc screamed, and I turned back just in time to catch a fist with my face. My head snapped back as my body tumbled through the air. I hit the ground, my skull cracking against the stone floor with a sound that would have scared me if I could think. My vision went hazy as Mattoc tried to intercept Yynnok as the goblin bounded toward me, loping in a sort of carefree way, arms swinging leisurely at his sides.
“Aid the Winter Queen, my goblins. Crush the Breaker and the Dragon Knight,” Yynnok called casually over his shoulder. Goblins swarmed out of the hole and charged at Warthor and Kishi, burying them beneath a swell of goblin flesh, teeth, and claws.
The Goblin King’s foot caught me in the stomach as I rolled to my hands and knees and sent me careening backward. The blades of Shirajirashii slipped from my hands and clanged against the floor as I struck the marble and bounced once, twice.
I let out a guttural cry of pain and tried to haul myself to my feet as Yynnok bounded in closer, one huge fist catching me under the chin and sending me crashing sideways against the wall. My teeth clacked together with such force, it made my ears hurt. I slumped sideways as his knee flew out, narrowly missing me and cracking the marble behind me.
“Sorry Lillim…” Mattoc’s words were like a whisper in the wind as he bent down and picked up the fallen blades of Shirajirashii. He held them out in front of himself and pressed the pommels together so that the jaws of the two serpents etched into the handles touched as they tried to swallow the moon and the sun respectively. “Come forth, Leviathan,” he cooed and the light in the room began to flicker. “Rise from the chaos and consume, Apep!” There was a shriek of steel as the twin serpents slithered off the hilts of Shirajirashii and out along his arms.
He dropped Set and Isis, and they clanged to the floor, the hilts empty and sleek with white steel as he raised his hands and pointed them at Yynnok. “You remember these, don’t you?” Mattoc growled as darkness swarming over his hands elongated into thick metallic claws with all sorts of spines and pincers jutting off them. Whip-like barbed tentacles trailed back off of his elbows as he stepped forward to face the goblin.
A very slight tremor ran through the Goblin King, and I don’t think I’d have seen it if I wasn’t so close to him. “You think you scare me, Mattoc?” Yynnok snorted and whipped two daggers from his belt. “You think I fear Apep?”
“Yes.” Mattoc lunged forward, the barbs whipping out toward the Goblin King with minds of their own as Mattoc slashed at the goblin. Yynnok bobbed and weaved as the barbs struck, tearing holes in marble all around him.
Yynnok closed the distance in a matter of seconds, ducking under Mattoc’s attack and plunging one of his rusty daggers into Mattoc’s thigh. Darkness seemed to reach out of the wound like smoke, wrapping around the goblin’s wrist and holding him still while the barbs slammed into his chest, plunging through his body and out the other side.
Forest green blood sprayed across the walls. The Goblin King screamed, driving himself forward along the tentacles and stabbing his other dagger upward into Mattoc’s torso, blade angled to pass up under his ribcage. Mattoc staggered back in a burst of black smoke as the goblin released his hold on the dagger.
Yynnok drove his foot downward into Mattoc’s knee with a loud crunch. Pain flashed across Mattoc’s face as he collapsed forward, the barbs disappearing in a flash of black light. The Goblin King grabbed Mattoc by the scruff of the neck, and grinned. “I never forget a fight,” he snarled, tongue lashing out to lick Mattoc’s cheek. “Nor the taste of your all too sweet flesh.”
With that, he flung Mattoc’s broken body to the side. My ghost hit the floor like a broken doll, blood pouring out of the wound in his abdomen as he tried to move, pain flashing across his eyes as his knee buckled beneath him. Yynnok spared him one last glance before turning back toward me.
“Now where were we?” he said with a grin.
All I could do was stare in horror at Mattoc. He’d been hurt, bad. He’d always been there for me and now he’d been hurt protecting me from this thing. A surge of rage exploded through me. I was going to make the Goblin King pay for this.
I glared at Yynnok as my back pressed against the cold marble wall. Its lack of heat radiated through my golden armor sending a chill down my spine. I had no weapons. My armor was all but peeled open, and Yynnok had successfully crippled Mattoc and buried my friends beneath his entire goblin horde. I was alone. But that didn’t matter. I was still going to kick his ass.
“I’m going to give you exactly one chance to leave before I get really angry,” I said, bringing up my fists. “Trust me. You won’t like me when I’m angry.”
“How about I eat you and suck the marrow from your bones?” Yynnok replied, licking his lips.
“While a good option. I’m not seeing how I benefit from that deal.” I fixed him with my best “I will kill you where you stand” stare. “Maybe we can come to some kind of compromise that doesn’t involve me ripping out your heart with my bear hands.”
He eyed me like I was a viper, and his lips compressed into a line. “If you try, I will rip off your arm and beat you to death with it.”
I opened my mouth to tell him just what I thought of that when the flying body of the Queen of the Cold and Dark slammed into the Goblin King. The two of them tumbled past me out of the way. Warthor and Kishi bounded past me, the horde of goblins trailing behind them.
“Trade!” Kishi called as she swept past me, pausing just long enough to toss the twin blades of Shirajirashii to me.
I caught them, twirling the handles in my hands as I got used to the snakeless grips. I moved in front of the horde, shut my eyes, and felt the ebb and flow of my power thrumming in the air, heard the scratch-scratch of goblin feet on marble, smelled the hunger in the horde as it closed in on me.
15
Power exploded from the other side of the hallway, filling the air with an icy thrum that smelled like a coming storm. The temperature dropped so quickly that my feet stuck for a second as the goblin blood beneath them froze into a sheet of green ice.
A chill crawled over my skin like a parade of icy ants, and I fought to keep my teeth from chattering. A goblin charged, but he slipped on the frozen ground and toppled into one of his buddies. They both slid sideways, wind-milling their arms wildly as they careened into the wall to my left with a wet thud.
I glanced back over my shoulder as a wave of snow and sleet burst down the hallway like a blizzard channeled into a tiny hallway… which was pretty much what was going on. I dropped to my hands and knees as Warthor’s body careened toward me through the air, barely missing me and smacking into the icy floor and sliding to a stop.
Yynnok leapt high into the air, a black short-sword gripped tightly in each hand, obviously intent on landing on my old master pointy side first. I swung Set in an arc that caught the Goblin King in the side as he passed by, spilling blood that froze in mid-air and pelted me in the face like hail.
The goblin barely seemed to notice my attack as he landed on the ground in front of Warthor and skidded to a stop in a flurry of icy sleet. Evidently, I’d bought my old master just enough time because he was already standing, sword slashing at Yynnok.
“You have to get out of here, Lillim!” Warthor screamed, and his voice was very nearly drowned out by another howling blast of winter. I’m not sure why, but the other goblins retreated as soon as Yynnok entered the fray.
“I can’t leave you and Kishi. Besides, Mattoc is in no shap
e to travel,” I called, launching an attack at the Goblin King’s back.
Yynnok ducked my attacks, and one of his feet lashed out at me, slashing through the air with steely precision. I sidestepped and slammed my knee upward into his knee. There was a loud popping sound as the goblin’s leg bent awkwardly. Without losing a beat, Yynnok swung his body around, using his damaged leg like a club and smacking me sideways.
The blow knocked the breath from my lungs as I staggered backward against the wall. The cold marble chilled me even through the armor, and for a moment, I wondered if someone dumped ice water down the back of my neck.
Warthor’s foot snapped out, catching the goblin under the ribcage and propelling him upward. The Goblin King smacked the ceiling with a sound that made me think broken bones and internal injuries. As he fell back down, Warthor caught him in the side of the head with an elbow that sent him flying back toward the swath of winter that was slowly consuming the hallway.
Light from Kishi’s weapons was barely visible above the throng of cold darkness. Even from here, I could tell she was retreating toward us. Warthor gasped, and I glanced at him as he leaned heavily on his sword, quick breaths hammering away at his chest.
“Mattoc will be fine,” Warthor wheezed louder than I’d have expected. “He’s a ghost. As soon as he remembers that, he can will his injuries away.”
As if having heard my old master, Mattoc appeared at my side looking like he’d never even stubbed a toe. “Sorry, not used to being corporeal,” he said with a grin and put his hands on Shirajirashii. The snakes wiggled off his wrists and back onto the hilts of my weapons so quickly that I almost didn’t notice it. “Now Shirajirashii will be back at full strength.”
“You’ll have to teach me that trick later,” I said just before Kishi sprinted past us.
“Run. Run now. I can’t hold back the Winter Breaker any longer,” she called over her shoulder as a giant icicle stabbed into the ground where she’d been just a nanosecond before.
The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3 Page 50